25/07/2025 – 19/09/2025

• On 1st September 2025, the UK Home Secretary announced that the UK will temporarily stop accepting new applications for refugee family reunification. From 4 September on, refugees must meet the same requirements as other migrants for family unification, including earning above the 29.000 pounds threshold and having a certain level of English language skills. 

• On August 6 2025, the treaty between Paris and London on the exchange of asylum seekers came into force. For every individual who arrives in the United Kingdom by “small boat” and is returned to France, the United Kingdom will receive an asylum seeker from France. This “one-for-one” mechanism, which does not specify the number of people involved, pushes the fundamental rights of refugees into a blind spot.  

• On July 31 2025, Al Jazeera reported, based on British government statistics, that 25,436 people, mostly young men, successfully crossed the English Channel between January and July 2025. This is the highest number since 2018.